Abstract: A proposal to architect and offer Linux based low cost and reliable
collaborative systems to be used by the virtual support communities for all
applications in support of the community especially in the arenas of distance
learning and telemedicine.

What is needed by the population of these communities including

users: members of the community

professionals in support of the community

moderators, experts in specific applications

government

health care

teachers, parents, kids

aged

ailing

disabled

is a unified, simple, reliable, affordable telecom platform system,
preferably voice-activated, that lets the user check for caller ID, receive
short messages, check for incoming and outgoing E-mail, access address books
for both telephone numbers, URLs and e-mail addresses, and place and end
telephone calls. All this without using the maddening complexity of Windows.

These segments of the population are in deep need for telemedicine and
distance learning applications which could be delivered on Linux based low
cost, rugged and simple platforms.

These segments of the population are in deep need for telemedicine and
Linux based platforms in which all systems: client desktops, client
laptops, client tablets, embedded sensors, communication nodes, blade
servers, all run on Linux. One good example is the Yellow Dog Linux software
from www.terrasoftwaresolutions.com.

The end users of the collaborative community extranet systems appreciate the
higher grade reliability of the hardware on which Yellow Dog Linux runs since
it is more rugged and reliable than the PC hardware: Yellow Dog Linux runs on
the same chips Apple OS X runs on: Power G4, iMAC and variations of it. In
fact any problems with the hardware or with the OS running on it would defeat
the collaborative community since the users including the professionals and
the people in need of health services are not that computer-wise so have no
tolerance for any glitches.

Of course we do not need to be purists and we should also use AMD or Intel
chip based PCs and even servers as long as they run under Linux such as
Lindows. The competition between AMD and Intel is providing better and more
cost effective processor chips including hyper-threading which allows
multitasking: running multiple applications at the same time.

Many other Linux hardware and software sources are also worthwhile to
mention:

to lower the cost of the server farm for the community www.eracks.com
provides blade servers

to make available any application software www.linuxiso.com offers
downloadable Linux software distribution

to learn about Linux www.freshmeat.com provides Linux tutorials

some telemed applications such as sensors and actuators may need custom
hardware from www.penguincomputing.com

certain legacy application interfaces may need will need switching between
Linux and Windows using the www.pogolinux.com offerings

One of the most important features for the collaborative community system
will be the server based voice recognition capability. Everything that is now
done by typing and text, will be more quickly and easily performed with voice
recognition. That is, a voice will identify a caller, read short messages
aloud, provide e-mail services in both text-to-voice reading of the incoming
e-mail and voice-to-text for outgoing E-mail, voice access of address books,
and voice-activated placing and closing out phone calls, search the web,
collaborate with the mentor, etc.

Once the users are able to answer, make and end a call or a web session
using just their voices, working with the Linux collaborative system will be
a breeze and seniors will not feel isolated and lonely. What a boon to
society voice-activated unified services will be including telephony and web
services.

Whether or not users are at all computer-savvy, e-mail will also be
extensively applied in the Linux based collaborative community support system
machine. It is, after all, a form of communication as is the telephone.
Of great value to the user would be e-mail and its corresponding address
book. As e-mail comes in, messages could be read by way of a text-to-voice
method. Also of great value would be a telephone system with its
corresponding address book and numbers. Short messaging could be read
through text-to-voice technology and short messages can be left using
voice-to-text methodology.

With the attractive price of a Linux-based unified communication device
encompassing all the applications mentioned above, users can be connected and
productive without the need for an expensive Windows system. Anything that
allows independence for the user is bound to be helpful to every aspect of
society.

Of course the professionals in support of the community will also benefit
from the simplicity of the user interface of the Linux-based client machine:
desktop or laptop or later even a tablet. Simpler interface makes it quicker
to use the system as well as voice recognition will make it more convenient
resulting in higher precision records and faster execution of sessions.

Even the able-bodied eyes-busy, hands-busy professionals can use it to
improve their productivity. This low cost virtual community platforms and
associated Web connectivity could be very useful in many government and
commercial employment arenas as well reaching out to the individuals who are
in need of upgrading in skills.

Of course there is still work to be done. Applications for the community
system must be developed or perfected to allow collaboration between the
health service professionals or social worker professionals and the many
people in need. Web connected AT oriented software components running on
Linux client machines connected to Linux servers have to be created such as...

simple and application specific user interface,

voice based interaction via computer/telephone,

always on and always available systems,

a collaborative virtual community systems,

life function sensors: blood pressure, respiration, retina, etc.

In fact voice recognition offers great promise for the future. However, it
isn't perfect and needs to be improved. One improvement could use lip reading
to bolster its accuracy. Still another is multi-tonal voice input. Another is
directional microphones. Every generation of voice recognition software will
improve as the hardware for Linux gets bigger and stronger.

Using such telephone simple systems the professionals can monitor, mentor and
moderate and even medicate the members of the collaborative community.

For a good example:

Dealing with students who have learning disabilities, it is
important to get their attention, to bolster their behavior
and finally to improve their cognitive productivity. With
assistive technology people can prevent further destruction
of their faculties, improve their quality of life and can even be
rehabilitated somewhat. Just the idea of being productive
adds to a person's self-esteem enormously.

Another very important example is the telemedicine capability which can be
used in preventative fashion to detect some of the early and silent
conditions of diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular conditions.